First Impressions
by lazily-here
Summary: In which Hitch is extremely proud of her matchmaking abilities. Written for Day 4 of MarcoMina Week. Modern AU.


**A/N: This is for Day 4 of MarcoMina Week, the prompt being First Impressions. Just a note: I thought Hitch's last name was Deliss from the translation of Chapter 59 of SnK that I read, but the SnK Wiki says her last name is Dreyse. To be safe, I am going with the Wiki's translation.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

A young female police officer had to smirk at herself as she kicked back in her office chair inside Sina Police Station, propping her feet up on her desk and pulling her cap over her face. _Brilliant_, she thought to herself - she was absolutely brilliant.

Despite her typically arrogant demeanor, Officer Dreyse rarely had many occasions where she could shamelessly indulge in her own pride, at least for good reason. But she felt like her chest would burst from satisfaction, for she had achieved a wonderful feat that day, and nothing could possibly ruin her mood.

"Should I ask what you are smiling about, Hitch, or should I just assume you're up to no good again?" No, not even her uptight, overtly righteous partner, Officer Freudenberg, whose desk sat across from hers, could spoil her day. Her smirk spread into a Cheshire grin. She tilted her hat up to peer at him from just below the brim.

"I am so happy you asked, Marlo," she replied sincerely. He raised an eyebrow at her as she spun around in her swivel chair, stopping when its back faced him. "Tonight, two of my dear friends are off on a date together because _I_ managed to set them up. And do you know who those friends are?" Marlo glanced around the room before his eyes settled back on Hitch.

"No," he admitted, which served to increase the width of her already ridiculously wide grin.

"Mina Carolina, one of my best friends, who despite her charming nature and..." the 23-year-old woman hesitated, "plain, but cute looks has never even kissed a man." She turned around in her chair to stare at Marlo expectantly; he sighed as he decided to play along with her melodrama.

"And who is the lucky guy?" he asked, glancing at the clock on the far wall. "Also, it's starting to frighten me how much your mouth can stretch."

"One freckle-faced, dashing young officer from our department," she answered, ignoring his last remark.

"Marco...Bodt, was it?" Hitch nodded as she rested her head in her hands.

"Mina's a P.I., as you know, and recently she's been working on infiltrating a street gang. And since this city has attracted an awful lot of crime this year - I mean, even more than usual - Mina's own department was just too busy, so she had to request..._help_, from here." Marlo frowned at her suggestive glance.

"But Annie's schedule is free - I checked the roster - while Marco has been more busy this week." Hitch waved her hand at him.

"I _fixed_ the roster," she replied flippantly. When his jaw dropped, as she expected, since Marlo was a stickler for order, she continued. "But I had a good reason. I mean, okay, so I was in the lobby, just chatting with Jean and Marco, when she walked in. Obviously, I spotted her immediately and called out to her, since she's my friend. So she comes over, and then I realize, like, within a few seconds of her noticing us and starting to walk over, I realized she wasn't even paying attention to me. So I looked, and _man_, she caught Marco's eye like, it was this instant connection. Like..." Hitch leaned closer to Marlo over the table, gazing intently into his eyes, her mouth partially gaped to imitate Mina's expression. After a few seconds, Marlo coughed into his fist.

"I get the idea," he said. She snapped out of it with a grin.

"It was just like that. Her eyes just popped open. And even when she started talking to me, she kept glancing at him, maybe for like a fractions of a second - but you know, nothing escapes me. And man, his cheeks were just completely pink. Me and Jean just looked at each other like - _we knew what was up_. So of course, I did what any logical person would do - I introduced them to each other. Then they shook hands, Mina cracked some stupid Mina-joke that I can't remember, and Marco _giggled. _It was _adorable_. She made him _giggle _like a little kid when you tell them a knock-knock joke. He was acting like such a dork."

Hitch's sly grin smoothed into a warm smile at some point as she relayed the story to Marlo. It made him smile slightly as well.

"That's nice," he commented thoughtfully. "I've heard him talking to Jean about pretty girls before, but I've never heard of him having a crush. I didn't think he would be that awkward." Hitch snorted.

"You're one to talk, Marlo. I bet you'd be just as shy around a lady." Marlo rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, how did you get them to go on a date?" Hitch didn't mind the subject change, so she relented.

"Well, you know..." she trailed off. "All they really needed was a push. You know when I said they had an 'instant connection,' I really meant it. They hit it off _so_ well; I've never seen such a good first impression in literally my entire life. So when Mina asked me if she could borrow an extra officer for a drug bust, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. I ran over to the roster and changed the schedule as fast and subtly as I could, and got them to do the mission together. By the time they got back, they were practically best buddies. They were laughing when they walked into the station together - I was working the front desk.

"The next day, Mina pretty much chewed my ear off telling me about the mission, and when I got into work, the first thing I heard was Marco talking to Jean about her. So I told Mina to ask him out, gave her his number, and..." Hitch unlocked her smartphone to check the time, "they are now going to see a movie together." She grinned at Marlo. "So you see, I have made two people incredibly happy this evening, therefore I am a matchmaker genius." Marlo scratched his head, his expression displaying his doubt.

"You know, they probably could have gotten together anyway, since you say they hit it off so well. You were just an initiator."

Hitch's amber eyes narrowed at her partner for a good long minute, while he stared blankly back at her. Finally, her expression crumbled as her lips pursed into a pout.

"Why can't you let me be proud of myself?"

"You're always proud of yourself."

"Shut up."


End file.
